Certified Scrum Master® (CSM) Certification Training in Chicago

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Conduct a retrospective to list 3 techniques to improve the performance and turnaround time.
• Explain the roles and responsibilities of a Scrum Master and a Product Owner.
• List 3 differences between a Scrum Master and a Product Owner and understand why these two roles should not overlap.
• Discuss how a product owner acts as a bridge between the development team and the stakeholders.
• Understand why a Scrum Master is not an active participant but a facilitator in the Scrum events and ceremonies.
• List 3 demerits of having a development team of less than 3 members or greater than 10 members.

Topics covered

• Scrum Master roles and challenges
• Product Owner roles and responsibilities
• Development team roles and responsibilities

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Explain the “why” and “how” of sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and retrospective.
• Understand why the scope and duration of a sprint are fixed.
• List 3 ways to avoid sprint backlog spillover.
• Define sprint goals and discuss 5 benefits of having a sprint goal.
• Understand how the Scrum Master and the Product Owner should coordinate with the team and list 5 points to improve such communications.
• Discuss 3 damaging impacts of sprint cancellation and how to avoid it.
• List 10 sprint anti-patterns (E.g. sprint cancellation, variable sprint length) and understand how these impact the delivery and turnaround time.

Topics covered

• Sprint planning
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint Review
• Sprint Retrospective

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• List and demonstrate 5 salient features of a well-formed product backlog (E.g. estimated, prioritized).
• Discuss 2 responsibilities of the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development team in creating and maintaining a product backlog.
• The objective of having a product backlog and best approaches to product backlog refinement.
• Analyze and discuss the ideal time and capacity to be dedicated to product backlog refinement.
• Demonstrate 3 activities (E.g. budget and timeline, release schedule) that take place during a sprint review.
• List 5 sprint review anti-patterns (E.g. delayed   acceptance) and their negative impacts

Topics covered

• Product Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Product Increment

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Explain the difference between resolution meetings and daily standups.
• Explain the benefits of collaborations with product owners.
• List 3 demerits of over collaboration of the product owners.
• Demonstrate 3 ways to break the barriers and collaborate
• Demonstrate creation of sprint burndown chart
• Explain 3 approaches to increase efficiency in the team

Topics covered

• Sprint Execution Planning
• Flow management
• Resolution meetings
• Communication (Taskboard, Sprint burndown chart using story points, hours effort)

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Explain the importance of 15-minute timebox for daily scrum meetings.
• List 3 differences between traditional meetings and daily stand-ups.
• Describe 2 roles played by the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development team in daily scrum.
• List the 3 critical questions pertaining to the daily scrum agenda.
• List 2 responsibilities of the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development team during the sprint retrospective.

Topics covered

• Activities in daily scrum
• Activities in sprint retrospective

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Explain Definition of Done at three levels ― user story (e.g. writing code), sprint, and release (e.g. preparing release notes).
• List 3 benefits of Definition of Done and explain why it can evolve over a certain period of time.
• Prepare a checklist (with a minimum of 7 entries) of an ideal DoD.
• Mention 3 risks associated with an ill-formed DoD.
• List 5 characteristics of good acceptance criteria.
• Understand who all should be involved in drafting the acceptance criteria.
• List 3 negative impacts of not following the acceptance criteria.

Topics covered

• Definition of Done for a feature (user story or product backlog item)
• Definition of Done for a sprint
• Definition of Done for a release
• Definition of Done vs. Acceptance criteria
• Done vs. Done-Done.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Create an ultimate checklist of Definition of Done.
• List 3 negative impacts of an ill-formed Definition of Done.
• Identify at least 3 benefits of a shared Definition of Done for multiple teams working on the same product backlog.
• List 2 ways to improve Definition of Done.
• Clearly understand the differences between “done” and “done done”.

Topics covered

• Definition of Ready for user story
• Definition of Ready for sprint

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Define and understand the steps involved in release planning.
• List 3 benefits of a well-organized release planning.
• List 3 outputs of release planning.

Topics covered

• Definition of release planning
• Who takes part in release planning
• Steps in Release planning
• Output of Release Planning

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Define and understand sprint burndown chart.
• List 3 primary reasons to use a burndown chart.
• Learn how to create and calculate a burndown chart.
• Explain how to adjust upcoming sprints based on the burndown.
• List 3 critical information obtained from a burndown chart.
• List 5 merits and 2 demerits of using a burndown chart.
• Understand 5 common errors that lead to misleading information in burndown charts.

Topics covered

• Definition
• Why and when to use a sprint burndown chart
• Information obtained from sprint burndown chart

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Understand the importance of having a release goal (based on historical data and agreement).
• Demonstrate the importance of release burn-up in understanding the current status.
• List 2 differences between burndown and burn-up charts.
• Explain how to adjust release planning (if needed) based on the burn down.
• Tell one primary advantage of a burnup chart over a burndown chart.  

Topics covered

• Definition
• Features
• How to create a release burn-up chart (steps)

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Define and explain user stories and understand the importance of user stories in real-time projects.
• Explain the 3 Cs in user stories.
• Discuss the importance of acceptance criteria and list 3 scenarios that might arise when the acceptance criteria are not met.

Topics covered

• What are user stories?
• Structure/format of user stories
• INVEST criteria

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• List and demonstrate 5 benefits of Agile estimation.
• Understand the 7 popular Agile estimation techniques and decide which one is the best for your project.
• Discuss 3 benefits of Relative Estimation and Planning Poker.
• List and explain 3 common mistakes made while using Relative Estimation and their negative impacts.
• Discuss in detail the 5 critical steps in Planning Poker. 

Topics covered

• Definition
• Benefits of Agile Estimation
• Agile estimation techniques

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• List 5 benefits of planning poker estimation technique.
• Decide the best sequence for the values (story points) on cards for your real-time projects.
• Discuss in detail the 5 critical steps in Planning Poker. 
• List 3 points to heed for employing planning poker for distributed teams.

Topics covered

• Definition
• Benefits
• Participants
• How to play planning poker
• Planning Poker rules

Your access to the Support Team is for lifetime and will be available 24/7. The team will help you in resolving queries, during and after the course.

This will include registrant application to any of our CSM education partner scheduled public classes, and where the registrant has already paid for the class. The below T&C would not apply to registrants signing up by way of a Purchase Order. All cancellations and reschedules must be notified over email.

A) CANCELLATIONS / RESCHEDULES BY CUSTOMER

• Cancellations received within 24 hours of registration would be offered a full refund.
• Cancellations received less than 10 days to the training would not be offered a refund. As a courtesy, we could allow you to apply 50% of your payment towards a future training program within one year of the cancellation date.
• Cancellations 1-3 days prior to class and no-shows would not be offered a refund and the amount would not be credited to a future training.
• Reschedules received greater than 15 days to the class would be credited to a future training date.
• Reschedules received less than 10 days would be credited to a future training but with 10% (of standard fee) reschedule charge.
• Registrant substitutions may be made at any time.
• Please note that if you do not cancel or do not attend, you would not be offered a refund nor will the amount be credited to a future training.

B) CANCELLATIONS / RESCHEDULES BY  OUR EDUCATION PARTNER

• Our CSM education partner reserves the right to cancel or reschedule a class at any time, including but not limited to, insufficient registrations, classroom or trainer unavailability, or if the trainer could not attend due to unforeseen circumstances.
• Our CSM education partner is not liable for any direct, indirect, consequential or special damages that may be incurred due to a cancellation of a scheduled class, including, but not limited to cancellation penalties owing to transportation or accommodation arrangements.
• Registrants would not be charged for the training and would be offered full credit to a future workshop or full refund as per the wish of the registrant.